Fr. Michael Williams

Last week, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, a pastoral letter was read in this Cathedral, and in churches across the Archdiocese, written by the Archbishop. The Archbishop said in his letter, that through our baptism, we share with the Lord in His life and mission. Therefore our baptism gives us a great dignity as members of Christ’s Body.

The custom of bishops addressing their local churches has a long tradition in the Church. In fact it goes right back to the time of the first Apostles. Simon, who is given a new name by Jesus: “Cephas- meaning Rock” went on to write two letters to encourage the early Christians, who were being persecuted for their Faith. Peter’s two letters were in some sense pastoral letters to the early Church.

St Paul, also called to be an Apostle of the Lord, helped to establish many Churches across the Mediterranean world, through his missionary endeavours. He wrote many pastoral letters to these Churches. Today’s second reading was an extract from one of the letters he wrote to the Christians at Corinth.

Corinth was a very wealthy city. ‘It was a city of the self-made…producing many millionaires’ (Murphy O’Connor). A city like Corinth, which focused so heavily on material wealth, often looked on the human body as just another object to be used. Many people in Corinth believed the human body was something for gratification purposes.

However, Paul was concerned that the Christians in Corinth were faithful to the baptism they had received. Paul says, “Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received Him from God”. Paul was emphasising that the human body had been created by God “for the glory of God”. Improper use of the human body is akin to desecration of God’s temple. In the city of Corinth the human body was often being used in an improper and immoral way.

St Paul addressed the problem of sexual immorality at Corinth with some forthright words; words that are not in your average pastoral letter: “Keep away from fornication”, Paul writes, “All the other sins are committed outside the body; but to fornicate is to sin against your own body”. Through baptism St Paul, and the Church, teach us: “The believer’s body and soul participate in the dignity of belonging to Christ” (CCC1004). This dignity demands that the believer should treat with respect their “own body and the body of every other person” (CCC1004).

The sexual act is a good, in the correct context of married love between a man and a woman, who have committed themselves to one another for the rest of their lives, and are open to the possibility of new life. Outside of the context of marriage though the sexual act is demeaned and devalued. It is especially demeaned and devalued through prostitution, paedophilia, pornography which are as rampant in our society as they were in Corinth two thousand years ago.

Let us pray for the moral renewal of our society, which often views the human body as an object to be used. Let us pray that more and more people will come to know that the body “is the temple of the Holy Spirit” which should used “for the glory of God”.